The following terms may be used throughout the description presented herein and should generally be given the following meaning unless contradicted or elaborated upon by other descriptions set forth herein.
“Wheel” refers to a generally cylindrical, typical metallic, disc-like mechanical support for supporting a typically pneumatic tire and mounting to a vehicle axle. A wheel has two axially spaced-apart flanges (or annular lips), each flange adapted to securely receive a respective one of the two beads of the mounted tire.
“Tire” is a laminated mechanical device of generally toroidal shape (usually an open-torus) having two beads, two sidewalls and a treaded surface, made of rubber, chemicals, fabric and steel or other materials, and typically inflated with air under pressure. A tire is mounted in the rim bed of a rim (rim being detailed hereinafter).
“Sidewall” of a tire refers to a portion of the tire between the treaded surface (tread surface, usually the running surface of the tire) and the bead.
The term “rim” refers to the part of a wheel that is made of metal, in particular aluminium, steel, or other alloy, and to which a pneumatic tire, usually made of rubber, is attached. The rim includes a peripherally extending rim bed to which the tire is attached (mounted), and a wheel disc portion within the peripherally extending rim bed. That wheel disc portion may have apertures or no aperture at all. The wheel disc may also be formed from spokes.
A non-contact method and a system for analyzing tire conditions by directing radiation to to the tire to be examined and sensing reflected radiation (scanning) is, for example, disclosed in document U.S. Pat. No. 7,269,997 B2.
This non-contact or touchless method and system for analyzing tire conditions includes an emitter source for emitting radiation signals towards a tire under test. The tire has a tread surface ranged between two sidewalls, and the tire is mounted on a rim to provide a complete vehicle wheel (vehicle wheel assembly). Detecting means receive signals reflected by the tire in response to the emitted radiation signals and output a corresponding detection result. The detection result is supplied to a processing system based on a microcomputer, and the processing system which is coupled to the emitter source and the detector, obtains a geometrical information, such as a height of a plurality of points on the tire based on the detection signals of the detecting means. Based on the data obtained and the height information a condition of the tire can be determined such as a wear of the tire and any damaged portion. A corresponding surface profile even with colour-coded height information can be displayed for the user indicating the detected tire condition. The surface profile of the tire is obtained by scanning the wheel surface while rotating the wheel.
According to the technical teaching of this reference, an arrangement is provided to which the vehicle wheel is to be mounted, and under control of the processing system (having the function of a controller) the wheel is rotated and the scanning means are operated for obtaining the scanning or detection result. Hence, for obtaining a proper detection result it is necessary to detach the vehicle wheel from the wheel suspension of the vehicle and to mount the vehicle wheel to be tested on the system for analyzing the tire conditions. This is time consuming and requires a lot of work for the operator or staff to obtain from a vehicle wheel (or from plural wheels) to be tested and which has been in regular use the corresponding information upon which an analysis can be based.